Here's one of mine (Steel City)

[Treejumper]

First try with new camera.

 

[Green Horn]

Dude, your first try at action shots looks better than my brazillionth try.

The only thing is that it looks kind of dark to me. Could me my monitor here at work though.

 

[Chili]

I like the composition, hard to tell whether you missed the focus or if we are dealing with camera shake or DOF issues. What's the exif data?

 

[Squid31]

I agree with everything Chili said. Judging by the movement in the wheels, you had a fast enough shutter speed, so I would guess that the blurriness is most likely a combo of shallow depth of field, and RC being so damn fast.

Good job for your first outing. Don’t think for one second that my first outing was any better. Actually here is one of the first 10 shots I ever took.

 

[Chili]

So I must ask if you were just getting started shooting it's unlikely the squid logo started with your photography stuff. What's the background?

 

[Green Horn]

Squid, that looks like one of my BETTER shots. :)

 

[Squid31]

Squid started long before the photography. My buddies and I always called each other "Squids", so the name just stuck. We were actually going to get some graphics made up for Squid racing, and that’s when we came across the squid logo. I'll have a look when I get home to see if I still have the jpgs of what I wanted my bike to look like. I was actually playing with Photoshop for like a year before I got into photography.

Chili, remember the dude that was with me in St Louis (Jason)? Well that’s him in the photo.

 

[Treejumper]

Thanks guys! Most of them are like this one, rider out of focus and background in. I tried focusing in on the dirt around the area the rider would be in for the shot but didnt seem to work. Where/what do you guys focus on?

 

[Treejumper]

Here is using the burst. Almost all of the burst mode photos i have like 1 or 2 in focus and about 4 out of focus. Not sure if that has to do with me shooting freehand or the riders going in and out of the focus point?

 

[Kawidude]

I'd say try a slightly faster shutter speed, use only your center focal point and set your focus to AI Servo. With AI Servo, once you get the rider set in focus you can follow him down the track and the lens will focus with him as he moves. They won't all be perfect but it will increase your odds of getting a few more keepers.

I hope you don't mind I tweaked your photo a little bit. I did a little sharpening and then boosted the colors a little bit. Running them through a little PS treatment can be a big help. It was already a little pixelated/jagged in spots, so sometimes the sharpening brings that out too much. It's best to do it on the original, high-res image first before resizing.

 

[Treejumper]

Thanks! The camera was set to AI Focus when these pictures were taken.

 

[Chili]

AI Servo only for shooting MX unless your an artsy type looking for an effect. I try to foucs dead center on my rider since even that is hard enough.